Goals & Accomplishments!

So far, I haven't ever sat down and really thought about my goals for Gwen, with any sort of timeline or game plan. I have ideas about what I want to see, but they tend to come out more like "Wouldn't it be neat if..." and "maybe one day we can do this..."  I have loose goals in my head. Things like "I'd like Gwen to learn to relax at the trot" and "I want Gwen to pick up her left lead" but as far as making a game plan... yeah. I'm not so great at that part.

What this really means, though, is that I sometimes don't notice when we're making progress!  I mean, if I don't have a clear idea of what I'm looking for... how will I know when we've gotten there?

Part of the reason I don't have defined goals, is because I don't want to have a timeline, or expectation, for when things will get done. My plan with Gwen is mostly to have fun and make sure she's comfortable. I don't have any plans to show her, or "do" anything with her aside from what I am already doing, so I don't see as much need to write out or really define my goals with her.  But I've been thinking lately that... maybe I should?

We've made SUCH progress over the past 6 months, never mind the year!  It's about time I listed what we HAVE accomplished, so that I can stop dwelling on what we're still struggling with.  So... without further ado, here are the things we have put into our "win" column:

WINS

• Gwen can trot at a modest, comfortable pace freestyle (compare to: her hyper jack-hammer/pogo-stick impersonation of a trot that she had when I first got her).
• Gwen can canter on a 22' line (this is HUGE!  She is so unconfident about her canter)
• Gwen JUMPED THE BARRELS! (!!!!!!!!)
• I can pick up all of Gwen's feet from one side (both from the right, and the left. I still grin everytime I do this)
• Gwen can change direction online (took forever for her to figure out what this was about)
• Gwen can confidently cross the wooden bridge online, and can cross the bridge with encouragement freestyle.

I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them at the moment. I did get the big ones tho!

Now for the "goals" or...

WORK IN PROGRESS

• Get Gwen confident about deworming
• Get Gwen confident about cantering freestyle (it's more of a race than a canter right now)
• Get Gwen confident about jumping freestyle (we have not attempted this yet. Still working online)
• Consistently need only phase one/two for yo-yo and driving game
• Practice our figure-8
• Introduce Gwen to the weave (waiting until she's more confident at figure 8 before I attempt this, tho).

And that's kinda what's on my brain. I pick and choose what to work on as the mood strikes me, and also depending on how Gwen is doing that day. The more connected she is, the more I'll work on our "hard" things (like cantering, and jumping). At the moment, I'm really focusing on freestyle, particularly with developing Gwen's responsibility of maintaining gait (she tends to break down after a few strides).

And now my brain is fried. XD  Maybe I'll post a picture tomorrow...

-J